SPRINGFIELD, Va. - Mitt Romney is calling the across-the-board defense spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January "a gun-to-your-head kind of approach."

He says the deal President Barack Obama made with Congress "was a strange proposal in the first place," and he says "it's even stranger that we're seeing it being put into place."

Speaking at an American Legion post in the Washington suburb of Springfield, Va., Romney said he would block "devastating job losses" to the military if elected and nourish a military "so strong that no one wants to test it."

Romney says it's "unthinkable" that the U.S. would cut its commitment to the military in a world that remains "troubled and dangerous."

Romney and other Republicans have tried to blame Obama for the defense cuts, especially in Virginia. But the GOP overwhelmingly backed the reductions when Congress passed the legislation in August 2011.

Romney has said it was "a mistake" for Republicans to agree to the deal.